Mom signed me up for the Carrie Underwood fanclub? YES! (does the Steve Holt! arm raise from Arrested Development)
Also the Whose Line is it Anyways? seasons finally came out!!! YES!!! Man I love those. (oh idi die dee die dee die dee!)
My email will be short today because I spent most of my time sending pictures and teaching my companion how to send stuff, write emails etc.
Anywho this week was full of some of the coolest experiences ever, most of them in one night. These will even be good enough for the grandkiddies.
Story #1
We started our day and literally EVERY appointment failed us! We spent our entire day trying to find people. This meant knocking on gate after gate after gate and talking to everybody that passed by. We were having no success at all. We visited members to try and get a referral but still no success. We were all tired, sunburned and just kinda feeling poopy. We kept on knocking. Finally at 6:30 at night we knocked on the gate of a muslim woman. She told us kindly that she wasn't interested but she told us, "wait here. My neighbors inside our compound are Christian, let me go call her."
We were then invited into a house of a woman named Joy. Joy is an older woman around 60 and stays with her daughters family and her granddaughter and her great-granddaughter. BIG FAMILY. So she allowed us to sit down and we shared with her the message of the restoration. After sharing about Josephs Smiths 1st vision, I felt strongly that I should ask her, "how do you feel inside?" I never really ask that question because they usually respond with something like, "uhhh...hungry...umm good I guess" accompanied with a blank stare; however I felt strongly I should ask her that question and say those exact words. I inquired. She told me that she felt "very intersting." We explained that the "very interesting" feeling she felt inside was the Holy Ghost and that He was testifying of truth to her concerning the message. She then shared a story with us.
She said that she had been thinking about church for a long time. She had been praying to find a church where she could take her family. She said that she didn't want to go to a church where her grandson and her would dance in the same room (that would be embarrassing). She said while she was traveling, her taxi got stuck in traffic in front of our Sacaman Jct chapel. She said that she felt like she should visit the church and come inside. She said that 3 days later, we came and knocked on her door and there we were. We asked her to come to church and she said that she would. She said that if she didn't come, she would be disobeying God and ignoring her answer to her prayers.
Well Sunday morning came and she and her granddaughter holding her great-granddaughter baby in her arms came to the front gate of the church. Just then her sandal broke. She was embarrassed and started walking away. Luckily Elder Bobareh and I were standing like hawks at the front church door windows and we bolted out the front doors and began to chase her down. She said that she couldn't come to church with a broken sandal. We turned her back around and assured her that nothing would happen and nobody would say anything, but still she wanted to leave. Finally we convinced her to come inside. She sat down just as sacrament began, luckily I delivered the list of the new people coming to church to the ward clerk and they announced their names and they got to stand up and be recognized. She liked that I think. The ward really helped make them feel at home. While this was going on, my companion and I were running around with a broken sandal and trying to figure out how to fix it before sacrament ended. Just then I saw Sister Smith, she was visiting with President Smith to the Odokor Ward (they meet in our same building, just 2 hours before). President Golden (from the 70) and his wife were also there, they were going to visit our missionaries in prison right after. Anywho I felt like I should ask sister Smith if she had anything in her purse that could fix a sandal. She said that she grabbed a small safety pin this morning and put in inside her bag, she didn't know why. So we got it and fixed the sandal. YAHOO! We sneakily delivered the repaired sandal to Sis Joy during sacrament meeting. It lasted for awhile, then during the last class it spoiled. Elder Bobareh ran and found a member who happened to have an extra pair of sandals in her bag... Don't ask me why in the heck she carries extra sandals in her bag. So Joy loved church, so did her granddaughter and Satans sandal fiasco didn't stop the work!
AHH President Smith just called!!! He asked me to serve as a trainer and still maintain my district leader duties. Ah, I will get my own new scared little missionary. Hopefully he won't be a butthead, hopefully I won't be a butthead... I hope he doesn't leave the area saying things like, "fetch!" and "gall!". Cool, I guess I'll get to meet him on next Wednesday. Hopefully he won't be out of shape. There ain't no room for fat in these thar hills. You gotta be pretty fit to even get to the house here. Well if he isn't in shape, he soon will be!!!
Story #2
Well back up, right after we taught sis Joy for the 1st time we walked outside. This guy stopped us and asked us, "how do you guys decide who to teach?" We told him that the Holy Ghost guides us. He was happy with our answer and started talking with us. He said that he doesn't really approach people but he felt like he should, His name is Kii. He is a college professor and lived in Utah for 1 year in a singing/dancing/service group. He stayed at a members house and they took him to a temple open house. He gave us his number and we scheduled an appointment. We went and visited another person; then as we were walking home we ran into Kii again. He said, hmmm come with me and let me show you my house. We then taught him lesson 1. My companion kinda was just sitting there because this guy speaks big english, luckily I speak college geek and can understand. We committed him to read through the pamphlet. Upon our second visit, he had typed up all the questions to the pamphlet, written all the answers down, cited the references, highlighted it and signed it at the bottom; oh he also scanned and emailed me the pdf of the document. This guy is correct. He didn't commit to come to church yet. He still needs to figure the stuff out in his head, then re examine it in 10,000 different ways.
Man I like this guy (probably because we share a love for pdf backups). The pamphlet was taunting him and he couldn't leave it alone. When we first visited him he seemed casual about it but he had to figure it out. Reminds me of cousin Nathan. We will meet with him again very soon. He is a very nice guy and is very kind. Great person. I hope to get to know him more.
Story #3
After visiting Kii, we were walking home. It was now about 9:00 and we were heading for home (we can stay out till 9:30 if we were teaching) and this man stopped in the middle of the road and put out his hand to shake us. I was slightly frightened and thought, "great another crazy boozer." We kept walking and got closer and then I saw that it was a normal guy except he had a very happy face on. Yes it was a member. He just moved into the area. His name is brother Seth and I found out that he is a network computer guy. We started talking geek and then he said that he had someone for us to teach. He gave us his number and told us to go visit his wife, also a returned missionary. The next day we visited his wife and she fed us some bread and mayonnaise, a common dish here, and then fetched us the referral. His name is Sameul. Samuel has been going from church to church, even tried Hinduism then came back to Christianity. I asked him what he was searching for. We then taught lesson 1 and invited him to come to church with brother Seth and his wife Selina. He came to church and was really happy and was smiling a great big smile the whole time. We grabbed Samuel and brother Seth after church and sat them down in a room. We then asked Samuel how church went and asked him if he prayed about Joseph Smith yet. He said he hadn't. I then asked him if he would say one right then, he was kinda shy but brother Seth supported him and urged him to do it. He then prayed. We then read Galatians 5 about the fruits of the Spirit. I told Samuel that I could notice that he was feeling one of these feelings very much. I asked him which feeling I was talking about. He told me "great joy." I asked him why he was feeling joyful. He said that words couldn't describe why. We then told him that the promptings the Holy Ghost gives you are hard to describe. We then asked him to be baptized and Aug 7th. He sat there for about 30 seconds in silence and was contemplating. He then said that he would want to be baptized. Brother Seth was so happy as were all of us. We are going back to visit smiley Samuel this week.
End of stories.
Well this week was really cool. We had some hard days under the sun but it was really good.
Thanks Brit for your email. Dad tiled your whole freaking bathroom for you? Hot chocolate and whipped cream colored tiles!!! Nothing says 'home' like a warm bathroom. Man our bathroom is like hmm a hot steam room. Plus the dang toilet is too tall, I feel like dad sitting at a movie theater or a baby in a highchair.
Don't get in dads way when he is working, you might get an accidental elbow to the eye. Just make sure he takes a break so he doesn't have a heahrt attack (Brooklyn accent). Also you can offer to drive the car for him when he has to run back to home depot and make sure he drives slow and won't keep buying diet dr.peppers or leave his wallet/planner at home depot.
Well Britt glad you are doing good. Glad your husband Dave is a good hard worker. I like hard workers. Keep it up Dave.
Larry Green is going to Spain? Man, he likes it over there. They just won the world cup so everyone will be having national pride and the culture will flow when he is there. I like Spain, I was rooting for them every time they played because their team had personality. They all had cool hair cuts and were the less European of all the teams. They had a soul. Go soul go. Go long hair go. Speaking of, I really hate short hair by the way. Oh well.
Well on the sad side, 2 more missionaries went home last week. So the total for this transfer of going home early was 3, which is 1 above average.
Well anywho glad you are all doing well.
Thanks mom for your email, I like hearing/seeing your voice. Thanks for your letters. The office elders say that I got some packages so I'll get some 4th of July taters tomorrow hopefully! Oh say can you see TATERS!
Love Elder Bills
This is why I have not got malaria yet. (knocks on wood)
My companions net fort. He makes fun of me because I said, "That's the coolest thing ever!"
Mowing the lawn for one of our investigators.
I get kinda sweaty...
Temple trip. I noticed I still squint like I did in that "hold to the rod" photo of me when I was little, you sent me.
Temple continued...
YES I got some letters!!! Actually I get lots of letters. They are like little messages of energy and determination. I love them.
This is that awesome corn drink the women sell on their heads. This is my favorite thing here!!!
I'm all for big ol' drink bottle cans. This stuff is called 'alvero.' It is like martenellies.
Us with Aaron, whom Elder Zadi and Nkemokolam baptized.
Philips little nephew. This kid is squigly. He threw a rock at me and laughed. Luckily I caught it somehow, thank goodness for all those years playing catcher. Man I woulda come all this way and been finished by a baby throwing a rock haha.
I thought this was funny. It reminds me of an Albert Einstein head. Can you see it, he is looking left. It is just some water or dirt or mold on a wall but I liked it. Reminded me of those clay heads mom used to make, you know the one I'm talking about. It is downstairs in moms old sewing room
Here is Philip, bottom right. The mommy in the blue is Anita from Liberia. Her family is living in Utah and were just recently baptized. They called her and told her to talk to the guys in the white shirts with the name tags. She now is baptized along with her whole family. They blessed her baby last Sunday.
Elder Nkemakolam and I eating some watermelon at our FM. This is at our Ward Family History guys house, bro Laabey. I got the forms from him for Elder Bobareh for his family history work.
My companion and I.
US missionary buddies. Elder Prince, from AZ, and Elder Farnworth from Utah. He was at the airport when you guys dropped me off remember. His mom is deaf so he speaks sign languages. He told me that there are different languages in sign language. (smacks forehead!) Crazy huh. He said the closest to the US signing is the French (smacks forehead again haha)
My comp and I enjoying our "victory pie." I am making a really stupid face. Oh well, enjoy it.
Elder Zadi and Elder Nkem enjoying the victory pie.
I just had to snap this baby. The mommies carry the babies on their backs. They tie them around them with some cloth, the babies also grab onto them like a koala.
This sign reminds me of a talk at General conference I saw when dad and I visited the conference center once. Elder Oaks talk entitled "good, better and best." Also, no I didn't wet myself. It was just nightime and the flash made it look that way. I promise...
